Network data playback system and method

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a network data playback system including a network circuit, a master device, and a slave device. The network circuit is configured to provide network resources for the master device and slave device and can be included in or independent of the master device. The master device is configured to select a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and actively/passively inform the slave device of the URL. The slave device is configured to execute the following steps: if an estimated distance between the slave device and the network circuit is shorter than a threshold, obtaining data (e.g., multimedia data) related to the URL through the network circuit and then processing the data; and if the estimated distance is longer than the threshold, searching for and/or choosing another network circuit to try to continue processing the data related to the URL through the another network circuit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates to a playback system and method,especially to a network data playback system and method.

2. Description of Related Art

A wireless playback system (e.g., wireless audio system) usuallyincludes a host and a plurality of wireless accessory devices (e.g.,Bluetooth/Wi-Fi speakers). These wireless accessory devices are setwithin a wireless signal range and configured to process specificnetwork data (e.g., music broadcasted from an internet radio) accordingto the setting of the host. If any of the wireless accessory devices ismoved out of the wireless signal range, this wireless accessory devicewill not process the specific network data anymore.

On the basis of the above, in a circumstance that the wireless accessorydevices are assigned different playback roles (e.g., front-left speaker,front-right speaker, rear-left speaker, rear-right speaker, etc.)according to their positions, if one of these wireless accessory devicesis moved after its playback role is determined and this wirelessaccessory device is still within the wireless signal range after themovement, the role assigned to this wireless accessory device shouldbetter be redetermined according to its current position. However, theconventional techniques do not redetermine the role of a wirelessaccessory device after its position is changed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a network dataplayback system and method as improvements over the prior art.

An embodiment of the network data playback system of the presentdisclosure includes a first network circuit, a master circuit, and afirst slave circuit. The first network circuit is configured to providenetwork resources for the master device and the first slave device. Themaster device is configured to select a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)and actively/passively inform the first slave device of the URL. Thefirst slave device is configured to execute a plurality of stepsincluding: on condition that a first estimated distance between thefirst slave device and the first network circuit is shorter than a firstthreshold, obtaining data related to the URL through the first networkcircuit and then processing the data related to the URL; and oncondition that the first estimated distance is longer than the firstthreshold, searching for and/or selecting a second network circuit andthen trying to continue processing the data related to the URL throughthe second network circuit.

An embodiment of the network data playback method of the presentdisclosure is performed with a slave device. This embodiment includessteps as follows: obtaining a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that isdetermined by a master device; obtaining data related to the URL througha network circuit and then processing the data related to the URL;determining whether an estimated distance between the slave device andthe network circuit is longer than a threshold; and on condition thatthe estimated distance is longer than the threshold, searching forand/or selecting another network circuit and then trying to continueprocessing the data related to the URL through the another networkcircuit.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments that areillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the network data playback system of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the steps executed by the first slavedevice of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows the steps of FIG. 2 and a step optionally executed by thefirst slave device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the network data playback system ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the network data playback method of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the playback system of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the steps executed by the master device ofFIG. 6/8.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the playback system of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the steps executed by the masterdevice of FIG. 6/8.

FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of the steps optionally executed by themaster device of FIG. 6/8.

FIG. 11 shows yet another embodiment of the steps executed by the masterdevice of FIG. 6/8.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of the playback method of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A lot of portable playback devices (e.g., wireless speakers, wirelessmonitors, cellphones, tablet computers, wireless earphones, etc.) areequipped with central processing units (CPUs) and have networkcapability. Providing these portable playback devices obtain a UniformResource Locator (a.k.a. web address), these playback devices themselvesas a whole are capable of functioning as an independent playback systemfor playing music, video, or other content related to the URL. However,if these playback devices are moved out of their current network range,the conventional arts do not enable them to continue playing; inaddition, after the positions of these playback devices are changed, theconventional arts do not allow the playback roles assigned to theseplayback devices to be redetermined in view of their current positions.In light of the above problems of the prior arts, the present disclosurediscloses a network data playback system and method allowing a playbackdevice to continue processing content related to the latest URL afterthe playback device is moved out of the original network range theplayback device used for playing. Besides, the present disclosure alsodiscloses a playback system and method allowing one or more playbackdevices to change its/their role(s) for playing after its/theirpositions are changed (e.g., to exchange the roles of a left channelearphone and a right channel earphone of a Bluetooth headsets after thepositions of the two earphones are exchanged). In consideration ofpositioning accuracy and application circumstances, a known orself-developed indoor/outdoor positioning technique candirectly/indirectly be introduced to the present disclosure fordetermining the position of a playback device; for example, thepositioning technique can be a known or self-developed Wi-Fi positioningtechnique having a positioning error within two meters, a known orself-developed Bluetooth positioning technique having a positioningerror within one meter, or a known or self-developed ultra-wideband(UWB) positioning technique having a positioning error within 1˜2centimeters. Several positioning techniques are found in the followingwebsites:

(1) https://kknews.cc/zh-tw/tech/2bznyr.html;

(2) https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.01015.pdf;

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_positioning_system;

(4) https://www.leverege.com/blogpost/wifi-indoor-positioning;

(5)https://pdfs.semanticscholatorg/8e72/61a54be0cdc66b15b111046057859b9c88eb.pdf;and

(6) https://benevo.pixnet.net/blog/post/66881109-.

Since positioning techniques themselves are beyond the discussion scopeof the present disclosure, their detail is omitted here.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the network data playback system of thepresent disclosure. The network data playback system 100 of FIG. 1includes a first network circuit 110, a master device 120, and a firstslave device 130. For example, the network data playback system 100 usesa known network configuration such as a mesh Wi-Fi configuration; thefirst network circuit 110 is included in/attached to a device havingnetwork capability such as a Wi-Fi access point, a wireless networkswitch, or a cellphone/tablet computer; the master device 120 is aplayback control device (e.g., host capable of control a slave device toplay music and/or video) such as a cellphone/portable computer/wirelessaudio system/wireless video projecting device; and the first slavedevice 130 is a playback device (e.g., device capable of playing musicand/or video) such as a cellphone/portable wireless speaker/monitor.Those having ordinary skill in the art can derive more examples from theabove disclosure. It should be noted that the appearance of eachdevice/circuit in the figures of the present application is for theexplanation of the embodiments of the present disclosure rather than thelimitation to the scope of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 1. The first network circuit 110 is a known orself-developed circuit capable of accessing network resources (e.g.,resources on the Internet) directly/indirectly; the first networkcircuit 110 is configured to provide the accessed network resources(e.g., sound data and/or image data) for the master device 120 and thefirst slave device 130. The first network circuit 110 can be a part ofthe master device 120 in light of the design or applicationcircumstances, or it can be independent of the master device 120. Sincenetwork communication techniques are beyond the discussion scope of thepresent disclosure, their detail is omitted here.

Please refer to FIG. 1. The master device 120 can select data (e.g.,audio/image data or multimedia data) of a URL through the first networkcircuit 110 and then actively/passively provides the URL for the firstslave device 130. In an exemplary implementation, the master device 120connects to the first network circuit 110 in a wired manner (e.g.,Ethernet) or wireless manner (e.g., Wi-Fi) to access network resources.In an exemplary implementation, the master device 120 provides the URLfor the first slave device 130 in a wired/wireless manner directlywithout the intervention of any third party (e.g., the first networkcircuit); in a circumstance that the master device 120 provides the URLfor the first slave device 130 in a wired manner, the positions of themaster device 120 and the first slave device 130 are usually fixed orcan be moved in a quite limited range while the first network circuit110 may be included in or attached to a portable device so that thedistance between the first slave device 130 and the first networkcircuit 110 may vary. In an exemplary implementation, when the masterdevice 120 connects to the first slave device 130 the first time, themaster device 120 transmits the URL to the first slave device 130; whenthe master device 120 selects or is redirected to a new URL (i.e., anupdated URL), the master device 120 transmits the updated URL to thefirst slave device 130. In an exemplary implementation, the masterdevice 120 actively transmits the URL and/or information of the currentprogress (e.g., elapsed time/remaining time) of the master device'sprocessing the data related to the URL for the first slave device 130many times periodically/non-periodically. In an exemplaryimplementation, the master device 120 passively transmits the URL and/orinformation of the current progress for the first slave device 130 inresponse to the request from the first slave device 130; for example, ifa first estimated distance is longer than a first threshold as mentionedin a later paragraph, the first slave device 130 actively requests themaster device 120 to transmit the URL and/or information of the currentprogress for the first slave device 130. In an exemplary implementation,the master device 120 actively/passively provides the current progress(e.g., elapsed time/remaining time) of the master device's processingthe data related to the URL for the first slave device 130. In anexemplary implementation, the master device 120 itself is a playbackdevice (e.g., device for playing music and/or video).

Please refer to FIG. 1. The first slave device 130 is configured toexecute a plurality of steps as shown in FIG. 2. The plurality of stepsincludes:

Step S210: on condition that a first estimated distance between thefirst slave device 130 and the first network circuit 110 is shorter thana first threshold, obtaining data related to the URL through the firstnetwork circuit 110 and then processing the data related to the URL. Inan exemplary implementation, the first estimated distance is measuredwith the aforementioned positioning technique. In an exemplaryimplementation, the first network circuit 110 includes a wirelessnetwork circuit, the first slave device 130 includes a wirelesscommunication circuit, at least one of the wireless signal of thewireless network circuit and the wireless signal of the wirelesscommunication circuit is used for measuring the first estimateddistance; for example, the first slave device 130 receives the wirelesssignal of the first network circuit 110 and measures the first estimateddistance according to the strength of the wireless signal with a knownor self-developed algorithm. In an exemplary implementation, the stepfor processing the data related to the URL includes: processing the datarelated to the URL in conjunction with the master device 120 under thecontrol (e.g., play/pause/fast-forward/next) from the master device 120,wherein the master device 120 controls the progress in processing thedata and may optionally include a visual and/or acoustic device (e.g.,speaker and/or screen). In an exemplary implementation, the first slavedevice 130 can process the data independently after it is informed ofthe URL, or the first slave device 130 and another slave device (e.g.,second slave device as mentioned in a later paragraph) process the datasynchronously under the same playback rule; in the meantime, the controlfrom the master device 120 is not necessary.Step S220: on condition that the first estimated distance is longer thanthe first threshold, searching for and/or selecting a second networkcircuit (e.g., the second network circuit 10 of FIG. 1) and then tryingto continue processing the data related to the URL through the secondnetwork circuit. In an exemplary implementation, on condition that thefirst estimated distance is longer than the first threshold, even thoughthe connection between the first network circuit 110 and the first slavedevice 130 remains alive, the connection quality may be poor; meanwhile,providing an estimated distance between the first slave device 130 andthe second network circuit is shorter than the first estimated distance,the first slave device 130 can optionally choose the second networkcircuit to try to continue processing the data related to the URL. In anexemplary implementation, the first estimated distance is a weighteddistance proportional to the rising rate of the first estimateddistance; in other words, this weighted distance is proportional to therelative speed of the first slave device 130 leaving the first networkcircuit 110; therefore, the first slave device 130 can search for and/orselect the second network circuit before the real distance between thefirst slave device 130 and the first network circuit 110 reaches thefirst estimated distance. In an exemplary implementation, on conditionthat the first slave device 130 continues processing the data related tothe URL through the second network circuit, the first slave device 130automatically adjusts at least one of its own parameters according toits capability (e.g., predetermined/optimal decoding setting and/orplayback capability) or predetermined setting.

Please refer to FIG. 1. The first slave device 130 can optionallyexecute the following step as shown in FIG. 3:

Step S310: on condition that the master device 120 is not accessible,processing the data related to the URL through the first network circuit110 without the control from the master device 120 till a predeterminedcondition is satisfied. Examples of the predetermined condition are asfollows: the first slave device 130 finishing playing a currentsong/episode that is played before the master device 120 becomesunaccessible; the first slave device 130 finishing playing allsongs/episodes on the list; and another master device taking over thecontrol of the first slave device 130.

Please refer to FIG. 1. The first slave device 130 can optionallyprovide its capability information (e.g., decoding capability and/orplayback capability) for the master device 120 actively/passively sothat the master device 120 can determine at least one playback parameterof the first slave device 130 (e.g., the setting of left and right soundchannels, enhancement/fading setting on high/low frequency sound,setting of volume, etc.) for processing the data related to the URL andthereby determine the playback effect of the first slave device 130. Inan exemplary implementation, the first slave device 130 is used forplaying video data and its capability information is video decodingcapability information in the form Four-Character Codes (FourCC); if thefirst slave device 130 does not or cannot provide FourCC, the masterdevice 120 can consider that the first slave device 130 is incapable ofdecoding video data; and the above-mentioned video decoding capabilityinformation can optionally include resolution information (e.g., imagewidth/height), video information (e.g., 5.1 sound channels and/or highdynamic range video (HDR); frame rate (fps); bit rate (Mbps)), etc. Ifthe first slave device 130 does not or cannot provide some of theaforementioned video decoding capability information, the master device120 can treat some maximum setting or predetermined setting of the videodecoding capability as the missing part of the video decoding capabilityinformation. In an exemplary implementation, the first slave device 130is used for playing video data and its capability information is videoplayback capability information such as the Extended DisplayIdentification Data version 2.0 (EDID 2.0).

In an exemplary implementation, the first slave device 130 is used forplaying audio data and its capability information is audio decodingcapability information in the form Two-Character Codes (twoCC); if thefirst slave device 130 does not or cannot provide twoCC, the masterdevice 120 can consider that the first slave device 130 is incapable ofdecoding audio data; and the above-mentioned audio decoding capabilityinformation can optionally include the EDID 2.0, number of channels, bitrate (Kbps)), sampling rate, etc. If the first slave device 130 does notor cannot provide some of the aforementioned audio decoding capabilityinformation, the master device 120 can treat some maximum setting orpredetermined setting of the audio decoding capability as the missingpart of the audio decoding capability information. In an exemplaryimplementation, the first slave device 130 is used for playing audiodata and its capability information is audio playback capabilityinformation such as the number of speakers and frequency responseinformation (e.g., the optimal frequency response range informationand/or the complete frequency response information). If the first slavedevice 130 does not or cannot provide the number of speakers, the masterdevice 120 can treat a predetermined number (e.g., one) as the number ofspeakers. If the first slave device does not or cannot provide thefrequency response information, the master device 120 can treatpredetermined frequency response information as the frequency responseinformation of the first slave device 130.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the network data playback system ofthe present disclosure. Compared with FIG. 1, the network data playbacksystem 400 of FIG. 4 further includes a second slave device 410. Theoperation and features of the second slave device 410 are similar to orthe same as those of the first slave device 130, and thus the way tomodify or improve the first slave device 130 can adequately be appliedto the second slave device 410. It should be noted that the positions ofdifferent slave devices and the capabilities thereof (e.g., decodingcapabilities and/or playback capabilities) may be different; and eachslave device cooperates with the first network circuit 110 and themaster device 120 in accordance with its own position and capability;accordingly, the upper limit of the connection distance between oneslave device and the first network circuit 100 may be different from theupper limit of the connection distance between another one slave deviceand the first network circuit 100, and the playback parameter(s) of oneslave device may be different from the playback parameter(s) of anotherone slave device.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the network data playback method of thepresent disclosure. This embodiment is executed by a slave device (e.g.,the slave device 130 of FIG. 1) and includes the following steps:

Step S510: obtaining a URL that is determined by a master device (e.g.,the master device 120 of FIG. 1);

Step S520: obtaining data related to the URL through a network circuit(e.g., the first network circuit 110 of FIG. 1) and then processing thedata related to the URL;

Step S530: determining whether an estimated distance between the slavedevice and the network circuit is longer than a threshold; and

Step S540: on condition that the estimated distance is longer than thethreshold, searching for and/or selecting another network circuit (e.g.,the second network circuit 10 of FIG. 1) and then trying to continueprocessing the data related to the URL through the another networkcircuit.

Since those having ordinary skill in the art can refer to theembodiments of FIGS. 1-4 to appreciate the detail and modifications ofthe embodiment of FIG. 5, repeated and redundant description is omittedhere.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the playback system of the presentdisclosure capable of determining the playback role(s) of at least oneplayback device(s) after its/their position(s) are changed. The playbacksystem 600 of FIG. 6 includes a master device 610 and a plurality ofslave devices 620. The master device 610 is a playback control device(e.g., host for the control of audio playback and/or video playback)such as a cellphone, portable computer, wireless acoustic host, orwireless video projector. Each slave device 620 is a playback device(e.g., device for playing music and/or video) such as a cellphone,portable speaker, or monitor. In FIG. 6, the slave devices 620 includethree slave devices 622, 624, 626, but this is an example forunderstanding rather than limitation to the number of the slave devices620. In view of the demand for implementation, the playback system 600can be used for processing non-network data (e.g., music/video data ofan optical disk, or music/video data of a storage device such as an USBstorage device or a memory card) or network data (e.g., music/video datarelated to an URL). If the playback system 600 is used for processingnetwork data, an embodiment of the playback system 600 is similar to thenetwork data playback system 100/400 of FIG. 1/4 and includes a networkcircuit (e.g., the network circuit 60) so as to access network resourcesthrough the network circuit. This network circuit can be included in themaster device 610 or independent of the master device 610. In light ofthe above, the network data playback system 100/400 of FIG. 1/4 can beused as the playback system of the present disclosure.

Please refer to FIG. 6. The master device 610 is configured to perform aplurality of steps. As shown in FIG. 7, an embodiment of the pluralityof steps includes:

Step S710: selecting data for playback. The select data can benon-network data (i.e., data that are not accessed from a network suchas the Internet) or network data. On condition that the select data isnetwork data related to an URL, the master device 610 selects a URLthrough a network circuit and actively/passively provides the URL forthe slave devices 620 so that the slave devices 620 access the datarelated to the URL through the network circuit and then process thedata. The detail of the above features is found in the embodiments ofFIGS. 1-5.Step S720: actively/passively obtaining the position information of theslave devices 620. The position information is determined with awireless positioning method and is specific position information or rawdata which the master device 610 can process to generate specificposition information. Several kinds of positioning methods are mentionedin the preceding paragraph; other known or self-developed positioningmethods can be used in step S720, if practicable. It should be notedthat each slave device 620 includes a wireless communication circuit(e.g., Wi-Fi circuit, BT circuit, UWB circuit, or Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) circuit) generating a wireless signal for thewireless positioning method. It should also be noted that if the masterdevice 610 itself includes a wireless communication circuit, theposition of the master device 610 can optionally be taken intoconsideration by the wireless positioning method; in this case, theposition information of steps S730˜S750 below not only includes theposition information of the slave devices 620 but also includes theposition information of the master device 610.Step S730: obtaining a distribution pattern according to the positioninformation. Regarding FIG. 6, the slave devices 622, 624, 626 arerespectively at a front-left position, a center position, and afront-right position in comparison with the position of the masterdevice 610. Therefore, the master device 610 can determine thedistribution pattern according to the position information (e.g.,relative coordinates).Step S740: comparing the distribution pattern with at least a part ofpatterns of multiple predetermined modes and thereby selecting one fromthe predetermined modes as a playback mode. This step can be realizedwith a known or self-developed pattern recognition technique; forexample, one can select a better mode related to the minimum/thresholddifference between the distribution pattern and one of the patterns ofthe predetermined modes or select the better mode according topredetermined setting (e.g., user setting), and then treat this bettermode as the playback mode. In an exemplary implementation, the dataselected in step S710 is audio data; the predetermined modes include abasic mode (e.g., acoustic mode based on a front-left speaker,front-right speaker, and center speaker), a surrounding mode (e.g.,acoustic mode based on a front-left speaker, front-right speaker, centerspeaker, surrounding-left speaker, and surrounding-right speaker), andan enhanced surrounding mode (e.g., acoustic mode based on a front-leftspeaker, front-right speaker, center speaker, surrounding-left speaker,surrounding-right speaker, surrounding-rear-left speaker, andsurrounding-rear-right speaker); both the distribution pattern and thepattern of each predetermined mode are based on coordinate information;the master device 610 compares the distribution pattern with at least apart of the patterns of the predetermined modes and learns that thedistribution pattern of the slave devices 620 in FIG. 6 is most similarto the pattern of the basic mode; consequently, the master device 610selects the basic mode as the playback mode.Step S750: determining playback parameters of the slave devices 620according to the position information and the playback mode so as todetermine the effect of the slave devices 620 processing the data; orinforming each slave device 620 of its playback role that is determinedaccording to the playback mode and the position information so that theslave devices 620 can determine their own playback parameters. Forexample, the master device 610 determines that the slave devices 622,624, 626 are a front-left speaker, center speaker, and front-rightspeaker respectively according to the position information and the basicmode, and thereby determines the playback parameter(s) of the front-leftspeaker (e.g., using 100% left channel data), playback parameter(s) ofthe center speaker (e.g., using 50% left channel data and 50% rightchannel data), and playback parameter(s) of the front-right speaker(e.g., using 100% right channel data). For another example, the masterdevice 610 informs the slave devices 622, 624, 626 of their playbackroles being a front-left speaker, center speaker, and front-rightspeaker respectively so that each of the slave devices 622, 624, 626 candetermine its own playback parameter(s) with one or more algorithm(s) inlight of its role. For yet another example, the playback parameter(s) ofone slave device 620 is different from the playback parameter(s) ofanother slave device 620. It should be noted that the master device 610can optionally control all the slave devices 620 to playsynchronously/asynchronously to create listening/watching experience.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the playback system of the presentdisclosure. The playback system 800 of FIG. 8 includes a master device810 and a plurality of slave devices 820. The slave devices 820 includea slave device 822, slave device 824, and slave device 828. The masterdevice 810 is configured to perform a plurality of steps; an embodimentof the plurality of steps includes the steps of FIG. 7. Providing “thedata selected by step S710 includes image/video data”, “the positioninformation obtained by step S720 shows that the positions of the slavedevice 822, slave device 824, slave device 826, and slave device 828 arethe upper-left position, upper-right position, lower left position, andlower right position respectively”, “the distribution pattern obtainedby step S730 is a 2 by 2 pattern”, and “the predetermined modes of stepS740 include a 2 by 2 mode (e.g., display mode based on an upper leftmonitor, upper right monitor, lower left monitor, and lower rightmonitor) and a 3 by 3 mode (e.g., display mode based on an upper leftmonitor, upper center monitor, upper right monitor, left monitor, centermonitor, right monitor, lower left monitor, lower center monitor, andlower right monitor)”, step S740 can compare the distribution patternwith at least a part of the patterns of the predetermined modes to findout that the distribution pattern of the slave devices 820 in FIG. 8 ismost similar to the 2 by 2 pattern and thereby use the 2 by 2 mode asthe playback mode. Afterward, step S750 makes the slave devices 822,824, 826, 828 process the upper left quarter of the image/video data,the upper right quarter of the image/video data, the lower left quarterof the image/video data, and the lower right quarter of the image/videodata respectively. It should be noted that if the playback system 800 ofFIG. 8 is configured to process network data, the playback system 800will include a network circuit (e.g., the network circuit 80 of FIG. 8)to access network resources through the network circuit. This networkcircuit can be included in the master device 810 or independent of themaster device 810.

Please refer to FIG. 6/8. In another embodiment, the master device610/810 executes a plurality of steps, as shown in FIG. 9, including theaforementioned steps S710˜S740 and the following steps:

Step S910: actively/passively obtaining capability information of theslave devices 620/820. Examples of the capability information aredescribed in the preceding paragraph.

Step S920: determining the playback parameters of the slave devices620/820 according to the position information of the slave devices620/820, the playback mode, and the capability information; or informingthe slave devices 620/720 of their playback roles according to theposition information, playback mode, and capability information so thatthe slave devices 620/720 can respectively determine their own playbackparameters in accordance with their playback roles. For example, if themaster device 610 learns that the low frequency response (e.g.,frequency response corresponding to the frequencies below 300 Hz) of theslave device 624 is better than those of the other slave devices 620,the master device 610 can designate the slave device 624 as a subwoofer.For another example, if the master device 810 learns that all the slavedevices 820 have the same 4K resolution display capability (e.g.,3840×2160 or 4096×2160) but have different decoding capabilities (e.g.,the slave device 828 is capable of decoding two 4K-code streams whilethe other slave devices 822, 824, 826 are only capable of decoding one4K-code stream), the master device 810 can select a URL providingimage/video data and then make the slave device (e.g., the salve device828) having a higher decoding capability process the image/video data ofhigher resolution (e.g., 4KP120, picture in picture (PIP), etc.) and theother slave device (e.g., the slave devices 822, 824, 826) process theimage/video data of lower resolution.

Please refer to FIG. 6/8. In yet another embodiment, the master device610/810 executes a plurality of steps including steps S710˜S750 of FIG.7 and steps S1010˜S1040 of FIG. 10 as follows:

Step S1010: actively/passively updating the position information of theslave devices 620/820 with a wireless positioning method and therebyobtaining updated position information. According to the demand forimplementation, step S1010 can optionally include: actively/passivelyobtaining the position information of a new slave device pertaining tothe playback system 600/800 with the wireless positioning method andthereby obtaining the updated position information. It should be notedthat if the position information of some slave device(s) 620/820 is notaccessible, step S1010 will obtain the updated position informationaccording to the position information of the other slave device(s)620/820. In an exemplary implementation, if two slave devices join theplayback system 600 of FIG. 6 and are set at the left and rightpositions respectively, the master device 610 can obtain the updatedposition information according to the position information of thepreexistent slave devices 620/820 and the two new slave devices, andthereby select the aforementioned surrounding mode as the playback modeand determine the playback parameter(s) of each slave device; if the twonew slave devices are removed out of the playback system 600, the masterdevice 610 can obtain the updated position information according to theposition information of the remaining slave devices 620/820, and therebyselect the aforementioned basic mode as the playback mode and determinethe playback parameter(s) of each slave device. In another exemplaryimplementation, if the positions of the slave devices 822, 824 of FIG. 8are exchanged, the master device 810 can obtain the updated informationaccordingly and make the slave devices 822, 824 process the upper rightquarter of the image/video data and the upper left quarter of theimage/video data respectively.Step S1020: obtaining an updated distribution pattern according to theupdated position information.Step S1030: comparing the updated distribution pattern with at least apart of the patterns of the predetermined modes and thereby selectingone from the predetermined modes as an updated playback mode.Step S1040: determining playback parameters of the slave devices 620/820according to the updated position information and the updated playbackmode; or informing each slave device 620/820 of its playback role thatis determined according to the updated playback mode and the updatedposition information so that the slave devices 620/820 can determinetheir own playback parameters.

Since those of ordinary skill in the art can refer to the disclosure ofthe embodiments of FIGS. 6-9 to appreciate the detail and modificationof the embodiment of the FIG. 10, repeated and redundant description isomitted here.

Please refer to FIG. 6/8. In yet another embodiment, the master device610/810 executes a plurality of steps, as shown in FIG. 11, includingthe aforementioned steps S710˜S720 and S740 and the following steps:

Step S1110: obtaining the distribution pattern according to the positioninformation of the slave devices 620/820 and the position information ofthe master device 610/810. In this embodiment, the master device 610/810includes a wireless circuit generating a wireless signal for determiningthe position of the master device 610/810 with the aforementionedwireless positioning method.Step S1120: determining the playback parameters of the slave devices620/820 according to the playback mode, the position information of theslave devices 620/820, and the position information of the master device610/810; or informing the slave devices 620/720 of their playback rolesaccording to the playback mode, the position information of the slavedevices 620/820, and the position information of the master device610/810 so that the slave devices 620/820 can respectively determinetheir own playback parameters in accordance with their playback roles.In an exemplary implementation, the master device 610/810 itselffunctions as a playback device in the playback system 600/800 and thusits position is taken into consideration for determining thedistribution pattern and the playback mode. In another exemplaryimplementation, since the position of the master device 610/810 isusually close to the position of the user no matter whether the masterdevice 610/810 functions as a playback device or not, the playbackparameters of the slave devices 620/820 are determined in view of theposition of the master device 610/810 to create betterlistening/watching experience.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of the playback method of the presentdisclosure. This embodiment is carried out with a master device (e.g.,the master device 610/810 of FIG. 6/8) and includes the following steps:

Step S1210: selecting data for playback.

Step S1220: actively/passively obtaining the position information of aplurality of slave devices, wherein the position information of theseslave devices is determined with a wireless positioning method.

Step S1230: obtaining a distribution pattern according to the positioninformation of the slave devices.

Step S1240: comparing the distribution pattern with at least a part ofpatterns of multiple predetermined modes and thereby selecting one fromthe predetermined modes as a playback mode.

Step S1250: determining playback parameters of the slave devicesaccording to the position information of the slave devices and theplayback mode so as to determine the effect of the slave devicesprocessing the data; or informing each slave device of its playback rolethat is determined according to the playback mode and the positioninformation of the slave devices so that the slave devices can determinetheir own playback parameters.Step S1260: making the slave devices process the data synchronously.

Since those having ordinary skill in the art can refer to the disclosureof the embodiments of FIGS. 6-11 to appreciate the detail andmodifications of the embodiment of FIG. 12, repeated and redundantdescription is omitted here.

It should be noted that people of ordinary skill in the art canselectively use some or all of the features of any embodiment in thisspecification or selectively use some or all of the features of multipleembodiments in this specification to implement the present invention aslong as such implementation is practicable; in other words, the presentinvention can be carried out flexibly based on the present disclosure.

To sum up, the network data playback system and method of the presentdisclosure can let a playback device try to continue processing datarelated to an original URL after this playback device is out of anoriginal network range; and the playback system and method of thepresent disclosure can adaptively adjust the playback role(s) of one ormore playback device(s) after the position(s) of the one or moreplayback device(s) is/are changed.

The aforementioned descriptions represent merely the preferredembodiments of the present invention, without any intention to limit thescope of the present invention thereto. Various equivalent changes,alterations, or modifications based on the claims of present inventionare all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A network data playback system, comprising: afirst network circuit configured to provide network resources for amaster device and a first slave device; the master device configured toselect a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and inform the first slavedevice of the URL; and the first slave device configured to execute aplurality of first steps including: on condition that a first estimateddistance between the first slave device and the first network circuit isshorter than a first threshold, obtaining data related to the URLthrough the first network circuit and then processing the data relatedto the URL; and on condition that the first estimated distance is longerthan the first threshold, searching for and/or selecting a secondnetwork circuit and then continue processing the data related to the URLthrough the second network circuit, wherein the step of processing thedata related to the URL includes processing the data related to the URLin conjunction with the master device under control from the masterdevice; and the master device is configured to inform the first slavedevice of a current progress of the master device's processing the datarelated to the URL.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality offirst steps further include: on condition that the master device is notaccessible, processing the data related to the URL through the firstnetwork circuit till a predetermined condition is satisfied.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the first network circuit is included in themaster device.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first networkcircuit is a portable wireless network circuit and/or the first slavedevice is a portable wireless playback device capable of processingmultimedia data.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first networkcircuit includes a wireless network circuit, the first slave deviceincludes a wireless communication circuit, at least one of a wirelesssignal of the wireless network circuit and a wireless signal of thewireless communication circuit is used in an estimation process of thefirst estimated distance.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the firstslave device is configured to provide capability information of thefirst slave device for the master device, and the master device isconfigured to determine at least one parameter of the first slave deviceaccording to the capability information and thereby determine an effectof the first slave device's processing the data related to the URL. 7.The system of claim 1, wherein the system further includes a secondslave device, the first network circuit is configured to provide thenetwork resources for the second slave device, the master device isconfigured to inform the second slave device of the URL, and the secondslave device is configured to execute a plurality of second stepsincluding: on condition that a second estimated distance between thesecond slave device and the first network circuit is shorter than asecond threshold, obtaining the data related to the URL through thefirst network circuit and then processing the data related to the URL;and on condition that the second estimated distance is longer than thesecond threshold, searching for and/or selecting a third network circuitand then continue processing the data related to the URL through thethird network circuit.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first slavedevice and the second slave device are configured to process the datarelated to the URL synchronously under the master device's control. 9.The system of claim 8, wherein each of the master device, the firstslave device, and the second slave device includes a wirelesscommunication circuit, the master device is configured to obtainposition information of the first slave device and the second slavedevice with an indoor wireless positioning technique, the master deviceis also configured to determine playback parameters of the first slavedevice and the second slave device for processing the data related tothe URL in accordance with the position information.
 10. The system ofclaim 8, wherein each of the first slave device and the second slavedevice is configured to provide capability information for the masterdevice, and the master device is configured to determine playbackparameters of the first slave device and the second slave device forprocessing the data related to the URL in accordance with the capabilityinformation.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first networkcircuit actively informs the first slave device of the URL regardless ofwhether the first slave device sends a request to the first networkcircuit or not; and/or the first network circuit passively informs thefirst slave device of the URL in response to the request from the firstslave device.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of firststeps include: on condition that the first estimated distance is longerthan the first threshold, requesting the first network circuit toprovide the URL for the first slave device.
 13. A network data playbackmethod, wherein the method is performed with a slave device andincludes: obtaining a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that is determinedby a master device connected to a network circuit; obtaining datarelated to the URL through the network circuit and then processing thedata related to the URL; determining whether an estimated distancebetween the slave device and the network circuit is longer than athreshold; on condition that the estimated distance is longer than thethreshold, searching for and/or selecting another network circuit andthen continue processing the data related to the URL through the anothernetwork circuit; and receiving information of a current progress ofprocessing the data related to the URL from the master device.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising: if the master device is notaccessible after the slave device obtains the URL, continuing processingthe data related to the URL through the first network circuit till apredetermined condition is satisfied.
 15. The method of claim 13,further comprising: providing capability information of the slave devicefor the master device so as to allow the master device to determine atleast one playback parameter of the slave device for processing the datarelated to the URL in light of the capability information.
 16. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising: on condition that the estimateddistance is longer than the threshold, requesting the master device toprovide the URL for the slave device and/or inform the slave device of acurrent progress of processing the data related to the URL.
 17. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising: on condition that the slavedevice continues processing the data related to the URL through theanother network circuit, automatically adjusting at least one playbackparameter of the slave device.